LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 February Long Beach Signature Coin #460  / 

2092

1796 1C Liberty Cap. AU58 PCGS. S-91, B-1, R.3

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:19,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1796 1C Liberty Cap. AU58 PCGS. S-91, B-1, R.3
<B>1796 1C Liberty Cap. AU58 PCGS. S-91, B-1, R.3.</B></I> <B>Bland AU50; Tied for CC-5. Noyes AU50; CC-4. Photo #22465. Our EAC Grade AU50.<BR><BR>Equivalents.</B></I> Proskey 7; Doughty 80; Gilbert F; McGirk 2D; Ross 4C; Clapp-Newcomb F; EAC 1; <I>Encyclopedia</B></I> 1682; PCGS #1392.<BR><B><BR>Variety. </B></I>Curved date, widely spaced; RT nearly touch forelock. Double leaves at UN and CA. The obverse appears on S-91. The reverse appears on S-91. Plain Edge.<BR><B><BR>Surfaces. </B></I>Absolutely superb surfaces and color for the grade. Both sides have mostly light olive, blended with darker olive and steel-brown. A few tiny abrasions are visible at the left obverse, and on the reverse, almost entirely original planchet marks.<BR><B><BR>Die State IV.</B></I> Minor die bulges are visible on both sides with horizontal scaling in the obverse fields.<BR><B><BR>Appearances.</B></I> The obverse and reverse are illustrated in <I>Early American Cents</B></I> and in Noyes (2007).<BR><B><BR>Census.</B></I> Two Mint State examples and two AU55 coins are known, per the Bland Census, with one of the AU55 pieces in the ANS. This example from the John Whitney Collection is tied with one other for fifth position.<BR><B><BR>Commentary.</B></I> Specialists debate the proper position of this variety in the emission sequence, either at the beginning or the end. It is a variety coined from a stand-alone die pairing, with neither die used for any other 1796 Liberty Cap cent. Sheldon placed it at the end of the sequence, while Loring and Breen place it at the beginning. It is not impossible that it could be from the middle of the long sequence, interrupting all other die combinations, though that would seem illogical.<BR><B><BR>Provenance.</B></I> <I>Col. E.H.R. Green; B.G. Johnson (St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co., 8/1942); James G. Macallister; J.C. Morgenthau (1/1944), lot 420, $155; George H. Clapp; ANS; Dr. William H. Sheldon; Dorothy Paschal; Robinson S. Brown, Jr. (Superior, 9/1986), lot 119, $5,775; Dr. Allen Bennett (4/1992); Eric Streiner; John Whitney (Stack's, 5/1999), lot 1721, $12,075.</B></I><BR><BR><B>Personality.</B></I> The founder and president of ALCOA, the Aluminum Company of America, <B>George Hubbard Clapp</B></I> was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1858. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, he was president of the school's Board of Trustees and its oldest living alumnus at the time of his death on March 31, 1949. Clapp was also on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Institute, to which he donated his collection of sea shells. He began collecting coins at a young age and was the founder of the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society. Clapp formed one of the finest large cent collection ever assembled, and donated his entire first-line collection to the American Numismatic Society in the late 1940s. Clapp was the author of <I>The United States Cents of the Years 1798-1799, The United States Cents 1804-1814,</B></I> and co-author of <I>The Cents of the Years 1795-1796-1797-1800</B></I> with Howard Newcomb.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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